TEHRAN, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of thousands of government supporters took to streets across the country on Wednesday to protest against the Sunday "riots" in Tehran. In the capital of the country, the people gathered in downtown Enghelab (Revolution) square and the nearby streets and condemned the defiling of the Sunday Ashura mourning ceremonies in Tehran. They chanted slogans in support of Islamic Republic and against the United States and Israel as well as Iran's opposition leaders. According to the local media, similar rallies were also staged in Iran's other cities on Wednesday. During the annual Ashura commemorations of Shiite Muslims on Sunday, anti-government protestors clashed with the security forces in Tehran. According to local media, eight people were killed and more than 300 others were arrested. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that the Sunday anti-government protests in Tehran was a play staged by Israel and the United States. Iran's police vowed to confront anti-government protests severely after the Sunday incident. The Ashura ritual is performed in Iran and some other countries with large populations of Shiite Muslims.

n dismisses reports of secret uranium deal with KazakhstanIran has denied a Western media report of a secret $450-million deal to procure purified uranium ore from Kazakhstan.Iran called the intelligence report, which was cited by the Associated Press, part of a psychological war."Such fabrications of news are part of the psychological warfare [against Iran] to serve the political interests of the hegemonic powers," Iran's representative at the United Nations was quoted by Reuters as saying.Kazakhstan earlier also denied any plans to supply uranium to Iran. The IAEA believes Iran is running out of uranium reserves which may hamper its controversial nuclear program, which the Islamic nation claims it needs purely for civilian energy production. A report drafted by an IAEA member nation said Tehran could make some 150 nuclear warheads from 1,350 tons of uranium ore.However, intelligence sources have failed to establish Kazakhstan's role in the alleged deal. Both the UN Security Council and the IAEA have launched talks with Astana to clarify the situation.U.S. Department of State Spokesman Ian Kelly warned that "the transfer of any uranium yellowcake... to Iran would constitute a clear violation of UNSC sanctions."Iran, which is already under three sets of United Nations sanctions for refusing to halt uranium enrichment, recently announced plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment facilities. Western powers suspect it of pursuing an atomic weapons program.

Τρίτη, 29 Δεκεμβρίου 2009

Ten civilians including eight school children have been killed the latest episode of NATO's imprecise airstrikes in Afghanistan. "Initial reports indicate that in a series of operations by international forces in Kunar province... 10 civilians, eight of them school students have been killed," Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office said Monday. Karzai has strongly condemned the killings in the airstrikes and appointed a delegation to investigate the event. NATO forces in Kabul said they were looking into the incident, but declined to give further details. Kunar representative in the parliament walked out of an important session debating appointments to Karzai's new cabinet in protest at the civilian casualties. The border regions of Kunar have long been volatile as Taliban militants are said to cross the porous border from Pakistan to fight Western troops and Afghan government forces. The imprecise operations carried out by the 100,000-plus foreign forces in Afghanistan have been criticized for their potential in claiming civilian casualties. In one of the worst such cases, more than 140 people, including at least 30 civilians, were killed or wounded in Kunduz Province on September 4

LAGOS, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian police said it is curtailing a violence that broke out on Monday in some part of northern Nigeria's Bauchi State. "We are curtailing its spread," Emmanuel Ojokwu, the country's police spokesman, told Xinhua on phone. He said the state command has ordered its armed policemen to curtail it spread. "For now, we are studying the situation before making any further comment," he added. Sources in Bauchi said they woke up into the pandemonium, as sporadic gunshots were heard across the city. The cause of the crisis could not be ascertained as at the time of filling this report. In July, the state witnessed a sectarian unrest that erupted in northern Nigeria's Bauchi State that spread to neighboring Adamawa, Kano, Bornoand Yobe States where about 600 people were reportedly killed. Nigeria is a secular country with the population evenly divided between Christians and Muslims. The northern region with 19 out of the country' s 36 states is predominantly Muslim, while Christians dominate the south

China's government will step up efforts to stimulate rural consumption and raise rural living standards to promote economic growth and ensure social stability, said a statement released Monday at the conclusion of the Central Conference on Rural Work."The remarkable achievement of the nation's rural development had consolidated the basis for the economic recovery, and contributed to the social harmony and stability," said the statement.The government would continue to improve farmers' lives as a crucial plank in its efforts to rebalance income distribution, said the statement.It would keep stimulating rural consumption, which was significant to drive domestic demand, according to the two-day meeting which laid out work for next year's agricultural and rural development."Despite the impacts of the economic downturn and the severe drought that hit central and north China early this year, rural development was sound and maintaining good momentum," said the statement.Grain yield this year was expected to hit a record 530.8 billion kilograms, which would be the sixth consecutive year of output growth, it said.The per capita annual net income of Chinese farmers rose to a high of 5,000 yuan (US$735), up more than 6 percent from a year ago.

The statement also described the situation for the agriculture and rural development as grim, as new problems continued to emerge, and some were unpredictable, adding the work for 2010 would rather be "complicated" and "difficult".Great efforts should be made to better coordinate urban and rural development, and guide more resources to the vast countryside, as well as agriculture, the foundation of the national economy, the statement said.The government would continue to push forward the urbanization to allow rural residents to enjoy equal public service with urban dwellers.Although rural residents comprise more than 70 percent of China's population, public resources are conventionally lean to the better-developed urban areas. That leaves a widening gap between the two, a perennial matter the government has vowed to solve.The annual conference is the highest-level meeting on rural work at which the government maps out policies and measures for next year's development of agriculture and rural regions. It is usually attended by senior officials of the State Council, China's Cabinet, and provincial-level officials.

December 27, 2009: When the U.S. Congress found out about the new U.S. Army policy of punishing soldiers who cause a pregnancy, while in a combat zone, there was an immediate response. Four senators notified the army that this policy would have to be dropped, because it compromised the rights of the soldiers in question. The army has to listen to Congress, because Congress approves, usually with many politically inspired modifications, the defense budget, and must approve any promotions of senior military officers. So the army backed down. The military is constantly having politicians urging them to do things that have nothing to do with military readiness for combat. Some of these suggestions are actually harmful. The military has to choose its battles carefully, when it comes to harmful policies being pushed by politicians. When push comes to shove, the politicians win. It’s the law, and no one wants to change it.

It was about two months ago, in Iraq, that the general commanding Task Force Marne (a division sized unit in northern Iraq) issued an order making it a court martial offense if an American soldier got pregnant. The soldier who did the impregnating could also be court martialed (everyone in the U.S. military has their DNA on file, so finding daddy is not a problem). Normally, getting pregnant gets the soldier sent home immediately. So far, seven soldiers (including three males) have been charged with violating the new policy.This is not a new problem, and has been a growing problem in the last two decades. Sometimes the soldier sent home pregnant, promptly gets an abortion, and is not sent back overseas. In extreme cases, female soldiers have gotten pregnant before being sent overseas, declared the pregnancy once there (and not happy with the more austere lifestyle), is sent back, and gets an abortion. Most female soldiers despise their sort of behavior, taking their oath of service seriously. But "goldbricks" and "malingerers" have been a fact of life in the military for thousands of years.But there were several things going on with the current situation. First, the pregnancy gets the soldier out of Iraq, or Afghanistan, without any penalty (other than having to raise the kid, a not inconsiderable cost.) Second, the pregnancy is evidence that at least two soldiers were violating the prohibition against sex in the combat zone (although that prohibition is rarely enforced). But there was a third cost; the army loses the services of that soldier for their remainder of their tour. It was this factor that caused the general to impose the pregnancy penalty. Too many essential troops were being lost to pregnancy. Many other commanders have quietly complained of this situation, but this is the first time a senior commander used the authority they had to do something about it.The problem exists in Afghanistan as well, but another solution is being tried. Last year, the U.S. Army in Afghanistan removed the prohibition on sex between male and female soldiers. There are 68,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and about ten percent of them are female. So far this year, about fifteen percent of these female troops have had pregnancy tests, and a few percent of the female troops have gone home because they were pregnant. Ending the prohibition was done with the understanding that the troops would exercise care, and avoid pregnancy. That has not been a hundred percent effective. It was feared that, if the Iraq solution proved more effective, it might end up being applied to Afghanistan as well, and other overseas areas where American troops serve on hardship (twelve month or less) tours.Since the 1990s, the army has been big on clean living (or whatever you want to call it) in combat zones. No booze, no sex and not cavorting (you know what that means) with the locals. But with most of the troops in combat zones being young and single, things happened. Some couples got caught. Commanders got tired of having to punish (usually with an Article 15, which is just short of a court martial) troops for "unauthorized fornication." So now it is, if not authorized, not likely to get you punished (aside from the occasional unexpected pregnancy), at least in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, in Iraq, while the army backed down on punishing troops who got pregnant to get sent home, no such mercy is being shown to soldiers caught committing adultery, or having sex with subordinates. It is believed that the politicians will have a more difficult time protecting that sort of behavior. Although, when you think about it, adultery and screwing subordinates is what a lot of politicians do

Σάββατο, 26 Δεκεμβρίου 2009

The strategic and military ties between Greece and Israel are deepening in reverse proportion to Turkey's estrangement from Israel and its growing closeness to Iran and Syria, DEBKAfile's military sources report. Significantly, when the commander of the Greek Navy, Vice Admiral G. Karamalikis secretly visited Israel earlier this month, he won the sort of red carpet which the Israel Defense Forces high command rarely gives foreign military visitors.Israeli Navy chief Vice Adm. Eli Marum took him around Navy HQ in Haifa port plus unusual tours of the top-secret INS Dolphin Type 800 submarine and the Saar V class INS Eilat 501corvette.The Dolphin is ranked as Israel's premier long-distance deterrent weapon and believed by Western military experts to carry nuclear-capable cruise missiles.The Eilat was part of the Israeli submarine's escort when it passed through the Suez Canal last June, starting out from the Mediterranean and heading to the Red Sea and back. Vice Adm. Marum accompanied the visitor and briefed him on the navy's operational capabilities.This demonstration focused on the vessels Israel has thrust to the fore in the last two years for Iran's benefit, to display the extent of its long-distance military reach as far as Iran's shorelines, the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea.The military partnership between Israel and Greece is not new. In June 2008, their two air forces and navies conducted a joint war game, during which 100 Israeli fighter-bombers flew out from their bases as far as Greek skies and back, spanning a distance roughly equal to that between Israel and Iran. The exercise was meant to show Tehran the Israeli Air Force's ability to cover the distance to Iran's nuclear facilities and back. According to Western military sources, the maneuver included practice sorties by Israeli warplanes against Russian-made S-300 anti-missile missile batteries deployed by the Greek Army.

Πέμπτη, 24 Δεκεμβρίου 2009

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Dmitry Kosyrev) - President Dmitry Medvedev and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will miss each other in Ashgabat, although the Iranian President will visit the capital of Turkmenistan only a week after his Russian counterpart.Chinese President Hu Jintao was in Ashgabat the previous week to inaugurate a gas pipeline linking Turkmenistan with China.Each of these three guests has received a portion of Turkmen gas. China will get 40 billion cubic meters of gas per year, and Russia 30 billion cubic meters (although Mr Medvedev and Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov have recently agreed to restore gas supplies to the former amount of 50 billion). Iran will import 20 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas (Mr Ahmadinejad, just like Mr Hu, is coming to launch a gas pipeline).A 40-30-20 combination is a good symbol of Turkmenistan's return to the international arena as a state which plays an important role in the affairs of Central Asia and the rest of the world. China, Russia and Iran are some of this Caspian country's partners, but lets not forget other important countries such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which are also involved in the Chinese-Turkmenian gas pipeline project.

Afghanistan, Turkmenistan's remaining neighbor, has indirectly caused the Caspian republic's relative self-isolation. The main reason lay in the special ties between former Turkmen leader Saparmurad Niyazov and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. When the United States started its war in Afghanistan in the winter of 2001-2002, Turkmenistan fell into complete isolation, as if it did not exist.However, when the George W. Bush administration asked Mr Niyazov to allow it to transport aviation fuel by railway from Ashgabat to Hairaton, he agreed. In addition, American aircraft were allowed to refuel in the Turkmen capital. Under the new agreement, which also mostly deals with refuelling, a group of seven U.S. service members are permanently stationed in Ashgabat.Nevertheless, it was the Afghan war that consolidated the Niyazov regime in its "quiet" policy. Turkmenistan did not join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) or the Collective Security Treaty Organization, was generally inactive in international affairs and, unlike Kyrgyzstan, did not allow itself to be turned into the main base of the U.S.- and EU-financed non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

At the same time, Mr Niyazov finally froze the country's domestic politics, making Turkmenistan a Caspian version of North Korea. However, it became clear after he died in December 2006 that the regime, which erected golden statues in his honor and required students to read his book "Rukhnama," was not destined to last for a long time.Moscow wondered how to build relations with Ashgabat several times. This was essentially an ideological issue, especially considering that ethnic Russians (8% of the country's 5.5 million-strong population) were plainly being harassed by the former regime. One option was to follow Bush's example and subject the regime to isolation and sanctions for human rights violations. But as was mentioned earlier, Bush himself had ties with the regime. The main point was that U.S. ideology, which favored regime change in Central Asia, made America an unwanted guest in the region. Importantly, this ideology also isolated America from countries like Burma (Myanmar), where Moscow made the same choice as with Turkmenistan, and which recently reached an agreement with Moscow on the sale of a large consignment of military aircraft.Essentially, in the early 1990s Moscow opted for gradual development of contacts with Turkmenistan, particularly regarding gas supplies. If it had not been for the regrettable episode last spring when Moscow and Ashgabat openly quarrelled over the price of gas and other gas-related problems, Moscow's choice of policy could confidently have been called correct.Important figures were made public on the eve of Medvedev's visit to Ashgabat. During the first nine months of this year, bilateral trade (without counting gas) reached $900 million, which is a 20% increase compared to the same period of the previous year. Russia has become Turkmenistan's biggest trade partner (in 2008 it accounted for 39.2% of Turkmenistan's trade). These results were produced by the right policy.Now Ashgabat can quietly concentrate on its policies towards the West. Ashgabat may not have enough gas for the West, but Western and Japanese investment is being already discussed. In November, the U.S. Congress set up a bipartisan Caucus on Central Asia in order to promote U.S. relations with this region. Some participants in its meetings continue talking about the need to help the region's countries "make the transition to democracy" but councils on trade with each country (but not with Turkmenistan) have already held investment seminars.In addition, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake has already announced a series of talks with each of the region's countries. He made a point that the United States will conduct these talks in the spirit of mutual respect, without claiming a monopoly on the truth or attempting to impose its system on anyone.

This approach will inevitable bring success to the United States, and life in the region will become really interesting. President Medvedev's visit to Ashgabat fits well into the common trend of change.

Some Ukranians accused Israeli of importing around 25 thousand Ukrainian children in the past two years for harvesting their organs in a step of using them for Israeli patients.Haarets Newspaper reported the news on Thursday 3rd of December. The paper has referred that this news came up on some Ukrainian websites.Haaretz has quoted Ukrainian Professor of Philosophy Godin who said said that the children had clearly been taken by Israeli medical centers, where they were used for "spare parts." Gudin said it was essential that all Ukrainians be made aware of the genocide Israel was perpetrating. According to "Haaretz", Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is scheduled to visit to Ukraine next week.Ironically and far from basics of Journalism, Haaretz classified the news of Ukrainian Children as antimerism news through its tags. "Tags: anti-Semitism". This indicates that this article is a taboo to be discussed or raised on the media. Even we expect to be accused of anti Semitism in the Palestine telegraph as are republishing this and intend to make a series of investigation about the topic.

Killing Palestinians for organs

Israel since the 80s killed thousands of Palestinians. Very considerable amount of victims disappeared since then. Back to the 70s bodies of Palestinian freedom fighters were kept after they were killed in military operation.Lately in August, a Swedish journalist accused Israeli army of killing Palestinian youths to harvest their citing witnesses and evidences of the issue.In his report, Swedish journalist, Donald BOSTRÖM, mentioned witnesses and facts ads follows, "You could call me a "matchmaker," said Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, from Brooklyn, USA, in a secret recording with an FBI-agent whom he believed to be a client. Ten days later, at the end of July this year, Rosenbaum was arrested and a vast, Sopranos-like, imbroglio of money-laundering and illegal organ-trade was revealed. Rosenbaum's matchmaking had nothing to do with romance. It was all about buying and selling kidneys from Israel on the black market. Rosenbaum says that he buys the kidneys for $10,000, from poor people. He then proceeds to sell the organs to desperate patients in the States for $160,000. The accusations have shaken the American transplantation business. If they are true it means that organ trafficking is documented for the first time in the US, experts tell the New Jersey Real-Time News."

Mysterious Scottish death

In 1998 a Scot named Alisdair Sinclair died under questionable circumstances while in Israeli custody at Ben Gurion airport.

His family was informed of the death and, according to a report in J Weekly, "...told they had three weeks to come up with about $4,900 to fly Sinclair's corpse home. [Alisdair's brother] says the Israelis seemed to be pushing a different option: burying Sinclair in a Christian cemetery in Israel, at a cost of about $1,300." The family scraped up the money, brought the body home, and had an autopsy performed at the University of Glasgow. It turned out that Alisdair's heart and a tiny throat bone were missing. At this point the British Embassy filed a complaint with Israel.

The J report states:

"A heart said to be Sinclair's was subsequently repatriated to Britain, free of charge. James wanted the [Israeli] Forensic Institute to pay for a DNA test to confirm that this heart was indeed their brother's, but the Institute's director, Professor Jehuda Hiss refused, citing the prohibitive cost, estimated by some sources at $1,500." despite repeated requests from the British Embassy for the Israeli pathologist's and police reports, Israeli officials refused to release either. (5,6,7) Israel's very first, historic heart transplant used a heart removed from a living patient without consent or consulting his family.In December 1968 a man named Avraham Sadegat (the New York Times seems to give his name as A Savgat) (2) died two days after a stroke, even though his family had been told he was "doing well."

Burjanadze protests demolition of the Military Glory Memorial

She said, it is an unreasonable decision to build some parts of Georgian government at the Memorial place in 2012. “These steps won’t solve country’s problems, besides, it will lead to big costs,” she said.

MOSCOW, December 20 (RIA Novosti) - Georgian authorities have detained a suspect as an investigation is underway into Saturday's deadly demolition of a monument in the South Caucasus country's second largest city, Kutaisi.

An eight-year-old girl and her mother were killed in yesterday's controlled blast when a monument to World War Two heroes, the Glory Memorial, was demolished in Kutaisi. The deaths apparently resulted from violation of safety regulations.

The detained suspect is the technical director of a private company involved in the blasting work, Georgian prosecutors said, adding that he faces up to five years in prison should he be found guilty.

A parliament building is reportedly planned to be built at the site of the demolished monument.

Georgia's opposition has said the officials who decided to demolish the memorial should be held accountable. Opposition forces intend to hold a protest rally in Kutaisi on Monday.

Russia has condemned the Georgian war memorial blast as an act of barbarism and state vandalism.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday the Georgian authorities "committed an act of state vandalism, offending the feelings of any civilized person."

The Memorial of Glory is dedicated to the World War II lost soldiers, and is built in Kutaisi, country’s second largest city.

Κυριακή, 13 Δεκεμβρίου 2009

The United States has begun talks with Russia and a United Nationsarms control committee about strengthening Internet security and limiting military use of cyberspace. American and Russian officials have different interpretations of the talks so far, but the mere fact that the United States is participating represents a significant policy shift after years of rejecting Russia’s overtures. Officials familiar with the talks said the Obama administration realized that more nations were developing cyberweapons and that a new approach was needed to blunt an international arms race.In the last two years, Internet-based attacks on government and corporate computer systems have multiplied to thousands a day. Hackers, usually never identified, have compromised Pentagon computers, stolen industrial secrets and temporarily jammed government and corporate Web sites. President Obama ordered a review of the nation’s Internet security in February and is preparing to name an official to coordinate national policy.Last month, a delegation led by Gen. Vladislav P. Sherstyuk, a deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council and the former leader of the Russian equivalent of the National Security Agency, met in Washington with representatives from the National Security Council and the Departments of State, Defense and Homeland Security. Officials familiar with these talks said the two sides made progress in bridging divisions that had long separated the countries.Indeed, two weeks later in Geneva, the United States agreed to discuss cyberwarfare and cybersecurity with representatives of the United Nations committee on disarmament and international security. The United States had previously insisted on addressing those matters in the committee on economic issues.The Russians have held that the increasing challenges posed by military activities to civilian computer networks can be best dealt with by an international treaty, similar to treaties that have limited the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. The United States had resisted, arguing that it was impossible to draw a line between the commercial and military uses of software and hardware.

Now there is a thaw, said people familiar with the discussions.

“In the last months there are more signs of building better cooperation between the U.S. and Russia,” said Veni Markovski, a Washington-based adviser to Bulgaria’s Internet security chief and representative to Russia for the organization that assigns Internet domain names. “These are signs that show the dangers of cybercrime are too big to be neglected.”Viktor V. Sokolov, deputy director of the Institute of Information Security in Moscow, a policy research group run by General Sherstyuk, said the Russian view was that the American position on Internet security had shifted perceptibly in recent months.“There is movement,” he said. Before, bilateral negotiations were limited to the relevant Russian police agency, the Bureau of Special Technical Operations, the Internet division of the Ministry of Interior, and the F.B.I.Mr. Sokolov characterized this new round of discussions as the opening of negotiations between Russia and the United States on a possible disarmament treaty for cyberspace, something Russia has long sought but the United

States has resisted.

“The talks took place in a good atmosphere,” he said. “And they agreed to continue this process. There are positive movements.”A State Department official, who was not authorized to speak about the talks and requested anonymity, disputed the Russian characterization of the American position. While the Russians have continued to focus on treaties that may restrict weapons development, the United States is hoping to use the talks to increase international cooperation in opposing Internet crime. Strengthening defenses against Internet criminals would also strengthen defenses against any military-directed cyberattacks, the United States maintains. An administration official said the United States was seeking common ground with the Russians.The United Nations discussions are scheduled to resume in New York in January, and the two countries also plan to talk at an annual Russia-sponsored Internet security conference in Garmisch, Germany.The American interest in reopening discussions shows that the Obama administration, even in absence of a designated Internet security chief, is breaking with the Bush administration, which declined to talk with Russia about issues related to military attacks using the Internet.Many countries, including the United States, are developing weapons for use on computer networks that are ever more integral to the operations of everything from banks to electrical power systems to government offices. They include “logic bombs” that can be hidden in computers to halt them at crucial times or damage circuitry; “botnets” that can disable or spy on Web sites and networks; or microwave radiation devices that can burn out computer circuits miles away.The Russians have focused on three related issues, according to American officials involved in the talks that are part of a broader thaw in American-Russian relations known as the "reset" that also include negotiations on a new nuclear disarmament treaty. In addition to continuing efforts to ban offensive cyberweapons, they have insisted on what they describe as an issue of sovereignty calling for a ban on “cyberterrorism.” American officials view the issue differently and describe this as a Russian effort to restrict “politically destabilizing speech.” The Russians have also rejected a portion of the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime that they assert violates their Constitution by permitting foreign law enforcement agencies to conduct Internet searches inside Russian borders.In late October at a luncheon during a meeting on Security and Counter Terrorism at Moscow State University, General Sherstyuk told a group of American executives that the Russians would never sign the European Cybercrime Treaty as long as it contained the language permitting cross-border searches.

Σάββατο, 5 Δεκεμβρίου 2009

TEHRAN, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Iran said that it needs 20 uranium enrichment facilities on the scale of its Natanz plant to fulfill its total electricity demand, Iran's satellite channel Press TV reported Saturday."We are in need of 20,000 megawatts that means 20 (times the amount the) Natanz (facility can produce)," head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Ali-Akbar Salehi told Press TV on Friday."Now the government has decided to have ten sites with the same size as Natanz; of course, when I say with the same size as Natanz, it is concerning the amount of fuel that is produced, which is about 30 tonnes per year," Salehi said.

"Each site will produce 30 tonnes per year which is enough for one nuclear power plant," he added. Salehi also said Iran will not pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) even though the Western countries are trying to force Tehran to withdraw from the treaty. "I think the West is trying to force us out of the NPT, but we have no plans to pull out," he added. On Nov. 27, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors passed a resolution calling for Iran's "full cooperation" to clarify all outstanding issues involving its nuclear program and requiring Iran to stop construction on the newly-disclosed Fordo uranium enrichment facility near Qom. Salehi called into question the "logic" behind the resolution against Iran and maintained that further sanctions could not make the country bow to the Western demands, according to Press TV report. He also advised the West against any confrontation with Iran, which he said could lead to "unknown consequences." As a response to the IAEA resolution, Iran's government on Sunday ordered the country's Atomic Energy Organization to start the construction of five new uranium enrichment sites and will present its proposal for the locations of five others within two months. Western powers have suspected Iran of attempting to build nuclear weapons, but Tehran said its nuclear program was aimed at generating nuclear energy for civilian purposes.